Analysis of operator splitting for advection-diffusion-reaction problems from air pollution modelling (Q1964116)

Operator or time splitting methods for the numerical solution of initial-boundary value problems for differential equations are discussed. Such a method is a standard practice for example in computational air pollution modelling. For such an approach it is important to estimate the quality of splitting and to determine the splitting error. The paper presents an analysis of operator splitting aimed at providing insight into the splitting error. Using the Lie operator formalism a general expression is derived for the three-term Strang splitting in the pure initial value case. For the class of advection-diffusion reaction problems the splitting error is analyzed in detail. A special case is discussed in which the splitting error can be reduced. Some results for an operator splitting in initial-boundary value problems are also developed.